How the Force Works
by roane
Summary: "Listen… I'm sorry. About your friend." Finn fumbled clumsily for something to add, stopped by the look on Luke's face: sad, but resigned. "You were one of the last people to see him," Luke murmured. "Yeah." "It should have been me. I should have been there."
After being without human company for so long, Luke was starved for it. It was a familiar sight to see him with anyone and everyone in the Resistance, cornering them for a few minutes just to listen to them talk. About anything. Just to hear another living voice.

Except for Finn. Finn tried not to take it personally, but sometimes he couldn't help but feel like he had a giant "ex-stormtrooper: untrustworthy" sign hanging over his head. Eventually he just took to spending time with Chewie when Rey and Poe were busy, and was slowly learning the ins and outs of the _Falcon's_ peculiar maintenance requirements.

Buried deep in the _Falcon's_ guts one afternoon, he yelled, "Hey Chewie, hand me a hydrospanner!" He stuck his hand out without looking, and the tool slapped into his palm. "Thanks Chewie."

"Chewie's up on the hull. He can't hear you."

Finn jerked and slammed his head into the bulkhead at the sound of Luke's voice. There came the sound of a barely-repressed chuckle, followed by, "Are you all right?"

Wriggling back out of the _Falcon's_ innards, Finn came up grease-smeared and newly bruised to find Luke standing on the duracrete.

"Came by to see if I could help out," Luke said. "I heard Rey had a tough run the last time around, took some heavy damage."

Finn blinked. "You… were going to work on the ship?"

"Pilot," Luke reminded him. "I know a little bit. Especially about this ship." He looked up at her with the same sort of affection that Rey did. "I'd be dead a dozen times over if it wasn't for the _Falcon_." Finn heard the unspoken _and her captain_ , reminded again that the friendship between Luke and Han was a legend in the Resistance.

"Listen… I'm sorry. About your friend." Finn fumbled clumsily for something to add, stopped by the look on Luke's face: sad, but resigned.

"You were one of the last people to see him," Luke murmured.

"Yeah."

"It should have been me. I should have been there."

Finn understood, suddenly, why Luke had avoided him. Since joining the Resistance, Finn had learned all about survivor's guilt, and knew he was seeing an epic case of it right in front of him. "He was amazing. I've never met anyone like him."

"You won't again, either." A faint hint of a smile on Luke's face, hidden within his beard. Then he fixed his eyes on Finn and said just two words: "Tell me."

They wound up sitting on the _Falcon's_ ramp while Finn related everything that had happened in the time he'd known Han Solo. Most of it made Luke laugh, but when Finn told him what Han had said, "…it's true. The Force. The Jedi. All of it," Finn saw a suspiciously bright gleam in Luke's eyes.

He hesitated when he got to their arrival on Starkiller Base, not sure Luke would want to hear the end.

"Go on. Rey's already told me her side of it."

Finn took a breath and kept going. He tried to express how desperate he'd been to find Rey, in hopes that Luke would understand why he'd lied to get on the base, in hopes that Luke didn't blame him for putting Han in harm's way.

"I thought… well. It was dumb, but I told him we could use the Force." Finn's face burned hot remembering how naive he'd been. "He looked at me like I'd grown another head and went, 'That's not how the Force _works_!'"

Luke surprised him by the smile that spread across his face like a sunrise, followed by a laugh that started small and grew until it echoed off the walls of the hangar bay. By the time he reeled it back in, there were tears in his eyes again, and Finn wasn't sure if they were from the laughter or not. "I can _hear_ him," Luke finally said, clapping a hand to Finn's shoulder. "The thing is, he was wrong. You being there, Rey being there–that was the Force at work. You were right to insist on going, right to go after Rey." He met Finn's eyes for a long moment, and Finn tried not to squirm beneath the scrutiny. "Thank you, Finn."

"For what?"

"For being there when I couldn't. I'm glad he and Chewie weren't alone." He smiled faintly. "They always got into more trouble when they were alone. Did Chewie ever tell you about the time they almost got caught on Chandrila…"

Finn settled in to listen, feeling a hurt–one he hadn't realized was there–starting to heal.


End file.
